My Shot After 26 years as a women's golf coach, I'm proud to say: We've come a long way, baby

When I became the coach of the newly formed women's golf team atTulsa in 1974, I didn't have an office; I had a desk in ahallway. I didn't have a team, either, so with a budget of$1,500 I found five freshmen on campus. I remember thinking,What have I gotten myself into? That seems like yesterday, andwith my retiring after last week's NCAAs I can look back, seehow far women's golf has come and say how proud I am to havebeen a part of the growth.

We took baby steps, at first, to upgrade our program. At ourfirst tournament I noticed that all the men's teams had matchinguniforms and golf bags, but none of the women's teams did. Icouldn't stand that, so I started lobbying for uniforms and bagsfor the girls. We were the first team in the country to havethem, and I'm sure I made a lot of athletic directors hate me.

I'll never forget my first recruiting class. I decided to goafter a little girl from Roswell, N.Mex. I flew to New Mexico ona private plane provided by a friend and spent a couple of hourswith Nancy Lopez and her family. We had instant rapport, andNancy decided to come to Tulsa. The next year the AIAW ruledthat coaches could not use private planes for recruiting trips.That was fine by me--I had already landed the best woman golferof the last 25 years.

I wish I could turn back the clock 20 years and keep charging,but I feel our school needs a younger person to maintain ourhigh standards. After 26 years it's time for me to relax andmaybe even play a game of golf once in a while.